In this Zoom webinar (registration here) organised by the University of Birmingham's Institute for Research into Superdiversity (IRiS) on 21 September, Professor Nasar Meer will explore the need to re-think two coterminous concerns: the rediscovery of the ‘local’ and the city in particular, and an understanding of the experience of displaced migration in Europe. Drawing... Continue Reading →
Early in June Sandra Pertek spoke to Pip McKnight of Refugee Women Connect and Hana Leshaj, asylum seeker based in Liverpool and member of Refugee Women Connect Advocacy Group, about the deteriorating reality post COVID-19 for migrants and asylum seekers in the UK, at the time of easing lockdown restrictions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12bNXVGpcIQ&t=140s The unprecedented COVID-19 crisis... Continue Reading →
Professor Jenny Phillimore talks to Ruth Forecast and Sharon Baker of Malvern Welcomes about the challenges for refugees and volunteers in the time of Covid-19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TpWVI8emb4 To find out more on IRiS Community Sponsorship research: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/superdiversity-institute/community-sponsorship-evaluation/index.aspx
In 2017, the Iranian-Kurdish writer, Behrouz Boochani, published an extraordinary book, No Friend But the Mountains which documented his life imprisoned in the Australian-run immigration detention centre on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea. Combining political theory, myth, poetry, memoir, the book rises to the challenge of resisting oppression by creating a new literary form of... Continue Reading →
In early 2020 the University of Birmingham ran a photo competition for all volunteers and refugees involved in Community Sponsorship in the UK. A number of entries were received, with a winner announced for each group. This online exhibition is a showcase of all of the photos that were entered into the competition. Volunteer group... Continue Reading →
In this episode of Conversations with Iris, Dawn River, academic at the Institute of Research into Superdiversity talks to Dr Rubina Jasani, Programme Director for Global Health at The Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute in Manchester (https://www.hcri.manchester.ac.uk/). As an anthropologist, Rubina has been interested in exploring people’s lived experience of violence, displacement and identities; gender... Continue Reading →
https://youtu.be/x4ndXtrSMyI Melash Zeleke is originally from Ethiopia, not sighted asylum seeker currently living in a reception centre in Rome, Italy. He tells Natasha Nicholls and Annavittoria Sarli (IRiS) about his story and his life in Rome before and after the lockdown. This conversation took place on Thursday 7th May 2020. On 4th May, after a... Continue Reading →
In this episode of Conversations with Iris, Lyndsey Stonebridge, professor of Humanities and Human Rights at the University of Birmingham, talks to Daniel Trilling, former editor of the New Humanist, journalist and author of Lights in the Distance. Exile and Refuge at the Borders of Europe (2018) and Bloody Nasty People. The Rise of Britain's... Continue Reading →
This is the recording of a conversation between Espoir Njei and Dawn River. The conversation took place on Tuesday 28th April 2020 - approx. one month into lockdown. Espoir and Dawn built a friendship through their shared commitment to supporting LGBTIQ migrants fleeing persecution. Espoir is a lesbian asylum seeker from the Cameroon currently in... Continue Reading →
We are delighted to host Dr Victoria Canning (University of Bristol) for the opening talk in this term's IRiS Seminar Series exploring different dimensions and manifestations of hostile environment for refugees and migrants (see the full programme for this term) Victoria is senior lecturer in criminology at the University of Bristol. She has spent more... Continue Reading →
